The controversey generated by President George Bush's reference to North Korea as part of an 'axis of evil' highlighted the chasm between Americans and South Korean perceptions of engagement with Pyongyang. Bush's visit to the South the following month, during which he denied the United States had any plans to attack the North, helped to calm the furore. But lessons need to be drawn from the episode in order to mainatin the cohesion of the US-South Korea alliance and the effective coordination of diplomatic approches to the North. Engagements on many levels with the North is becoming an increasingly urgent task, but North-South summitry should be downplayed as an immediate goal. A 'passionless' form of engagement shouldbe pursued that fully recognised the difficulty, if not impossibility, of changing the way the North Korean leader Kim Jong II runs the country.